The Loyal Apprentice
by EverHere
Summary: When Anakin became Darth Vader, Ahsoka followed in his footsteps. Now she must face a figure from her past that will seal her fate.


Author's Note: This was inspired by Taclobanon's piece portraying Ahsoka as a Sith, found on DeviantArt. I hope you enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars or any of its characters.

The Loyal Apprentice

The harsh wind was whipping at her back as she scanned the horizon, completely oblivious to the pain of the sand scratching at her face and arms. The binoculars were pressed hard against her face as she fought to see past the storm that was raging around her.

There was nothing. Dead, empty space. A flat horizon, and endless sand. But this was typical of Tatooine. She didn't need visual confirmation to know that he was out there.

Lowering the binoculars, Ahsoka hooked them onto her belt and slowly raised the hood of her dark cloak over her head, letting it cover the fierce amber color of her eyes that crackled like electricity.

Black waves of her cloak billowed behind her as she abandoned her speeder and stepped out into the maze of whirling grit and dirt. He was this way. And he was waiting.

It was funny, she thought, how everyone had misjudged her. She has so much life in her, so much potential, they had all said. Ahsoka smirked. How wrong they were. If they thought she was planning on playing the marionette for them her entire life...if they thought she was going to let them hold her back from how powerful she really was, well then, they were fools. The Jedi Council had learned this the hard way.

Ahsoka never faltered as she continued her walk towards her destination, following a straight path toward her target. Allowing her mind to wander once more, she recalled the moment that she had finally seen. The day it had all become clear to her.

It was ironic, in a way. Of course, she had always had a temper to match her Master's, but unlike him, she was more prone to follow the rules, to resort to the help of others...and to follow the Jedi code. She treated the clones with equality and friendship, and enjoyed the company of her fellow Jedi students, all apprentices under their own Masters such as Barriss Offee and Tyzen Xebec.

Such a good little Jedi, Ahsoka grinned cruelly, laughing at herself.

She remembered how appalled she had been...wait. Ahsoka stopped in her determined strides as she sensed a change with the Force. Her target was moving...but not because he had to. He was...trying to draw her away from something. From what?

Ahsoka sneered. What is it you're hiding, Jedi? No matter. She would make him talk once he was a bloody mess lying at her feet.

Right. She had been appalled...disturbed...perhaps surprised was the correct term, when she was reunited with her Master after Order 66. She hadn't known how to react, how to handle the deaths of so many she had once loved as friends and companions.

And when she finally met him...not after he had stormed the Temple, but after he had become what he truly was. The raspy breathing and mechanical voice, the terrifying fact that that helmet replaced his former face, for it was itself a new face: Darth Vader's. It was all wrong, but she wasn't scared, only angry and bitter. Ahsoka hated him for what he had done, for what she had to go through, for his weaknesses and her own.

Where do your loyalties lie, Ahsoka?

She felt like she should be horrified, but when her Master came, she was ready to follow. Perhaps she had been too loyal an apprentice.

Returning to the present, Ahsoka focused on the slight shadow that was becoming visible far in the distance. The grainy rock underneath her feet scraped against her boot as the heat poured down even stronger, the storm starting to fade as she passed out of it.

She smiled at the corner of her mouth. A nice, malicious smile. This mission was hers. She had accidentally discovered this target on her own and now he was hers. And her Master would be pleased when he not only learned of her discovery but of the extermination of this threat. It was to be the culmination of all her efforts, proof of her capability and power, and would be an example of the Empire's reign over this galaxy.

Ahsoka had been surprised at how easy it was to adjust to her new life, and how easily it suited her. She had only become stronger since then. And she was no longer the young, happy child that she had been. That was another person entirely. Now older, her montrals had grown to their full height, as well as she herself had grown taller. To any bystander, she would be described as beautiful, although having an air of the deadly about her. What were once wide crystal blue irises were now faded to a sickly yellow set in eyes that were sharp, severe, and distrustful. And while her attire was a similar style, it was now the customary black of a Sith apprentice, with a bit more elegance to its design, giving her a more serious and fearsome aura. Ahsoka had learned to walk with confidence into any situation, letting go of all the concerns and doubts that once hindered her learning. She played her part well, and to know you were her next target was to know that a terrible fate would be bestowed upon you by her hand.

She loved to think what her "friends" and "Masters" would think of her now, in all her glory and power. Her talent wasn't wasted here, as when they had taken it for granted back when she was a Jedi.

The flat surface of a plateau now met her feet, the sky was clear but darkening. Tatooine's twin suns were setting, and a few stars were starting to shine sharply in the evening light. Her target's face was now visible before her.

Stepping before him, she removed her cloak with one rippling sweep, letting it fall beside her.

He was silent for a moment. "Of all the Jedi, Ahsoka, I thought surely you would not fall." His expression was not discouraged, but only sad. Sad for her.

Ahsoka's face remained expressionless, but underneath, she felt her blood boil with a seething venom. She needed no sympathy from a Jedi. "You've been wrong about many things, Master," she mocked. "Your faith in the Jedi was misplaced as well."

Slowly shaking his head, the man removed his own brown cloak, removing it with less flair, and in a simple gesture, he let it drop to the ground. Silently, he pulled out his lightsaber but hesitated before he ignited it. "Ahsoka, please. Don't let yourself be fooled. You're heading down the wrong path."

She grinned cruelly, baring her sharpened teeth at him. Ahsoka knew he wouldn't ignite his lightsaber until she did. He was waiting for her to make the first move. Swiftly removing her two lightsabers from her belt, she scoffed at him. "Save your self-righteousness for another." And suddenly a ruby glow filled her vision as her lightsabers were ignited.

Her opponent's eyes were filled with sorrow and pity. "If this is what you wish. But only you have brought this upon yourself."

Immediately Ahsoka leapt through the air towards her enemy, the last rays of the second sun flashing upon her with fierce intensity as she brought both lightsabers crashing down to meet the azure saber of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

He easily blocked her rage-fueled move, quickly retaliating by lashing out his leg with a well-aimed kick that sent her staggering back a little. Stunned for only a moment, she immediately recovered by dodging to the right as his lightsaber came rushing down on the ground where she had been previously standing. Holding out her hand, she focused and felt the Force surge to her fingertips. Ahsoka reached out for it and then felt her hand grab it harshly, wrapping it around her fingers as she manipulated it to her will. Her fingernails were biting into her skin and had begun to draw blood. As she sensed him come near again, her eyes flashed open and she sent all her energy toward him in a crashing wave with a single hand motion. Flying backwards, he smacked the ground with a loud thump.

He didn't look much older, and that surprised her. A few gray hairs had mixed with the crimson color of his beard, and he looked tired, as though he had known what freedom was like, but even now, as an exile, he realized how little freedom he had been locked away with. But his eyes...his eyes, certainly, they were same. It was strange how no matter what age or being you were, it was always the eyes that seemed to capture your essence, and gave proof to your existence. Obi-Wan's were still gentle, and filled with sympathy, still attesting to the truthfulness of his well-chosen nickname, The Negotiator.

It was hard to believe that someone like her Master had learned from someone like...this. How he had even gained any strength or understanding from this hermit was beyond her. It angered Ahsoka, how she had once obeyed Obi-Wan, just another puppet brainwashed to do the Jedi's bidding. Now he could see her as she truly was, what potential she had had all along.

Obi-Wan had regained his balance and was now charging towards her with his lightsaber held high. Bracing herself, Ahsoka prepared to block his attack by bringing up one lightsaber while she readied herself to make a stab at him with the other saber. However, Ahsoka was unsuspecting of his next move, and she was caught unawares as he leapt over her, and with graceful precision made a quick, neat cut to her calf, his momentum causing him to thunder toward the ground. While the wound was not deep, it still stung with pain, and Ahsoka gritted her teeth and bore the burning sensation coming from her leg as she flipped backwards over Obi-Wan, just barely avoiding the cerulean blur that swept at her feet as she did so. The black soles of her boots slammed against the ground as she whirled around and suddenly crimson was flashing everywhere as her lightsabers came furiously down upon Obi-Wan like blazing fire raining down from the heavens. Obi-Wan was steadfast in his defense, never faltering as he rapidly calculated where to stop her every move. Remaining perfectly calm, he slowly moved his feet back foot by foot, twisting his wrist to expertly maneuver his lightsaber as he blocked Ahsoka's violent rampage.

She would run out of energy quickly if she continued with such a chaotic tactic, and Obi-Wan waited patiently for her to succumb to her own physical failing. He was watching carefully, and when Ahsoka hesitated for merely a moment, he reacted instantly and plunged his weapon into her abdomen. Her flurry of attack immediately ceased, her mouth snapped open in shock, her eyes widened and a gush of blood stained her clothes. With her defenses temporarily left unguarded, Obi-Wan had a second to disarm one of her deadly weapons by stretching out with the Force and sending it scattering away on the expanse of sandy rock that surrounded them. Unwilling to surrender, Ahsoka's face twisted into a hideous grimace before she staggered forward in an attempt to continue the fight. Gripping the hilt of her weapon until her knuckles were white, she raised it and slashed downward at her opponent, a sloppy move which was easily avoided, as her strength finally failed her and she collapsed to her knees, her skin scraping across the scratchy layer of rock that made up the ground.

As desperately as she tried to regain her standing position, her physical pain outweighed her will, and she remained still, one arm clutching her stomach as blood slid down over her forearm in a slow, sickening way, her other arm hoisting up her last lightsaber in a defensive position. Obi-Wan merely flicked the weapon out of her hand with the tip of his own lightsaber, and then turned his own glowing weapon so that it pointed towards her face. Their eyes locked.

"Kill me." Ahsoka rasped.

"I cannot, Ahsoka." Was the calm response.

"I will not return to my Master like a groveling coward." She seethed.

"I will not kill a defenseless opponent. You know this."

In her rage, she threw her head back and let out a loud, guttural, snarl towards the black sky. It raised in pitch to resemble a piercing shriek that cut through the tranquil night.

"Kill me!" She cried in hysterics. "KILL ME!"

Obi-Wan looked at her in pity, the raw display of character before him giving testament to how far she had truly fallen. Her eyes were wild, any humanity that once lived there now dead. She was an untamed animal, a raging beast, with no intelligent thought or sympathetic feeling. Ahsoka was indeed dead already.

To harm a defenseless being was a thought that fought against every principle that had been pounded into him from a young age. To commit such an act was a betrayal of himself, and an option that was seemingly impossible. But a Jedi was also taught to be merciful and forgiving.

And to see this pathetic existence before him, Obi-Wan felt that death would certainly be a mercy...surely he could not leave her to writhe in pain as she slowly bled to death. No. It was not a strike against a vulnerable being, but a mercy. It would be the last gift he would give to an old friend.

As she turned her head to face him, her eyes looking up into his with her desperate plea, a quick stroke of his lightsaber dulled her eyes as her body slumped to the ground, dead. It was a mercy.

Deactivating his lightsaber, Obi-Wan sighed a quiet, deep sigh. How many had fallen, and were yet to fall? How much longer must this fight go on? Where Ahsoka had once been so bright and full of life, she had been so easily manipulated and twisted, destroyed by the very being that she had so admired.

On a backwater planet in the Outer Rim, a planet with twin suns, one of the last remaining Jedi Masters in the galaxy turned toward the sandy desert as he began his travel homeward, one thought running through his head: that perhaps... perhaps she had been too loyal an apprentice.


End file.
